Collaboration flows through Green Bay, Fox Valley craft brewers

Craft Beer Week returns to Green Bay May 14. The area's craft brewers have teamed up once again for a collaboration brew.
Jeff Bollier and Daniel Higgins, Green Bay Press Gazette

The Appleton Beer Factory is helping out McFleshman's Brewing while preparations are underway for their business to open. Jeff Fogle, left, and Ben Fogle, right, of the Appleton Beer Factory pose with Shane Butner and Bobby Fleshman of McFleshman's Brewing in the bar area of the new business Sunday, May 13, 2018, in Appleton, Wis.
Ron Page/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin(Photo: Ron Page/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisco)

When beer finally flows through the taps at McFleshman's Brewing Company, it will not have happened without Appleton Beer Factory.

It's a mad dash inside McFleshman's to finish renovations so the new craft brewery can open in time for the inaugural Fox Valley Craft Beer Week. Layla Cowper, McFleshman's taproom manager, is on a ladder painting the ceiling. Co-owner Bobby Fleshman is awaiting the arrival of new light fixtures when he takes a quick break to explain how his competitors, located just around the corner, brewed and stored barrels of its Pirate's Cove helles-style lager.

"We wouldn't be here if it weren't for Appleton Beer Factory," said Fleshman, who didn't waste time removing his safety glasses or carpenter's pencil from behind his ear.

Craft beer week activities included painting, walking, biking, eating, listening to music and more beginning Monday in the Fox Cities, Green Bay and surrounding communities.(Photo: Courtesy of Wisconsin Distributors)

This isn't the first time Appleton Beer Factory has helped another craft brewery get off the ground by contract brewing beer, and they're not alone. The collaborative spirit it embodies can be found throughout Northeastern Wisconsin's craft brewing industry.

As craft beer enthusiasts across the country raise pints this week to celebrate American Craft Beer Week, it's clear the spirit of togetherness that has helped build the craft beer movement to become a $26 billion industry is alive and kicking in Northeastern Wisconsin.

"When Copper State opened, the general feeling we got from the existing breweries was cooperation and a desire to see us succeed," Copper State Brewing Co. co-owner Gregg Mattek said. "In a pinch, everyone in town would help us succeed."

Krystina Engebos, Titletown Brewing Co.'s distribution and production manager, said older breweries in Green Bay like Titletown and Hinterland Beer see a huge value in sharing their expertise with newer breweries.

"We're sharing knowledge and experiences," she said. "It helps us all become better breweries."

Rising tide floats all bocks

Everything was progressing as planned for Lion's Tail Brewing, in Neenah, to open in 2015. Everything, says owner Alex Wenzel, except approval of a federal brewing permit, which was needed before even applying for the state permit. Realizing it was going to be a while before he could brew in his own brewery, Wenzel approached Ben Fogle, director of operations at Appleton Beer Factory, about contract brewing until Lion's Tail's paperwork was approved.

Fogle agreed and Wenzel was able to have two of his beers on tap when his taproom opened.

"That was a huge help to us, and it helped them make a few extra dollars as well," said Wenzel.

Contract brewing does provide an extra boost financially for Appleton Beer Factory, but it's short-lived. In the long run, it means more competition. At least that's how an outsider might see it.

Neither Fogle or Fleshman see it that way.

Fleshman says having several breweries within walking distance of each other is common in thriving craft beer communities, something he witnessed firsthand while living in Colorado.

Fogle said the more the merrier. Engebos elaborated, saying any of the local breweries would rather see people consuming local beers from breweries that support their community rather than one from a faceless, multinational corporation.

"That community mindset toward growing craft beer is a common goal," she said. "We'd rather have you drink our neighbors' beer than a macro beer made by a stranger."

Pouring it forward

Plus it wasn't that long ago that Fogle was getting sage advice and help from breweries like Stone Arch Brewpub before Appleton Beer Factory opened in 2013.

The Brewers Association started American Craft Beer Week in 2006 to "celebrate the culture and community of craft beer." At the time, there were four breweries in Northeastern Wisconsin: Fox River Brewing, Stone Arch, Hinterland and Titletown.

When McFleshman's pours its first beer, the region will boast more than a dozen breweries and taprooms, with more in development. Even as more breweries pop up, the culture of community can still be seen in the form of guest taps and collaboration beers.

Lion's Tail, the Neenah brewery, will not only have Milwaukee-based brewer Eagle Park Brewing Company's beer on tap this week, but they also will be collaborating on a pair of beers: One brewed in Neenah, one brewed in Milwaukee. Lion's Tail regularly features beers from other brewers in its taproom and has collaborated with Vintage Brewing of Madison, and Bare Bones Brewing of Oshkosh, previously.

Teaming up to brew a beer, said Wenzel, works best when it benefits both breweries.

It's also a chance to learn from each other, pick up on techniques that will carry over into future brews.

Titletown and Noble Roots, one of Green Bay's newer craft breweries, collaborated on and recently released Our Bock, a maibock, in which both businesses came away impressed with the other.

"This was a good experience for us to brew on a system different from ours and that’s much bigger," Noble Roots' co-owner Alex Falish said. "We had higher-level meetings to talk about the style. We talked through the ingredients we both use. It was a true collaboration."

Wenzel said he's looking forward to upcoming collaborations with Eagle Park, whom he credits as being really good with the milkshake combination that requires a specific balance of ingredients to get it right.

"That's something I've been wanting to get into, and played with a little bit, but I can immediately learn things they've taken years to perfect," said Wenzel. "Hopefully I'm able to teach them some things about doing a hazy IPA or water chemistry."

After going to Eagle Park to "spitball" some ideas, Wenzel said they came up with a couple of beers they wouldn't normally do. Plus, Wenzel joked, if the beer doesn't turn out right, you only have to take half the blame.

Brother, can you spare some hops?

There are also less sexy ways brewers help each other out. Namely borrowing and lending. A package of hops. A bag of malt. Tops for cans.

"I would say, probably 10, 12 times a year I will lend someone an ingredient or borrow an ingredient," said Wenzel.

And even before regularly recurring headaches of operating a brewery rise, there are bigger questions of how to scale home brewing operations from the garage. It's not recipes or brewing process or even the need to be obsessively conscious about cleanliness. No, it's advice about creating a business plan that won't get you laughed out of the bank when applying for a loan or where to place floor drains.

Falish said the family-run Noble Roots crew befriended Stillmank Brewing Co. owner Brad Stillmank well before they opened their University Avenue taproom a year ago.

"We sat down with him and asked him a long list of questions," Falish said. "He answered all of them. Brad was ridiculously helpful."

It can even be something like a vent pipe attached to the boil kettle, Wenzel said. It's not something you can necessarily count on an HVAC installer to have installed before because it is unique to brewing. But three other brewers knew and helped them out.

Wenzel figures he talked with about 20 brewers whose advice was critical to setting up his brewery.

Since opening three years ago, Wenzel said he's had about 20 calls from breweries in planning.

And so, thanks in part to the continued pay-it-forward mentality of many brewers, the craft beer's portion of the beer market continues to grow.

"I don't know if we've gotten to return the favor, but I'm sure we will," Falish said. "Considering we've only been in the industry for a year, it's great we all hang out. It's very, very welcoming. It's a lot of nice people with a common interest."

Now estimated at nearly 13 percent of the beer market by volume and 23 percent of sales dollars, the competition still remains the large domestic breweries, at least as Fleshman and Fogle see it.